The inaugural season of Ultimate Sevens has come to an end, and with it an opportunity to examine and assess its impact on rugby sevens as a whole.
The new format and teams allowed for a new style of playing weeks, which showcased the talents of many of the world’s best players coming together.
With that in mind, RugbyPass takes a look at the six matches that stood out across the three stages of the Ultimate Sevens, and rose up at key moments to get results.
Pacific Current 13-20 Blue Lightning – Cardiff Men Semi Final
Despite falling in the final to Clan Taran, the Foudre Bleue signaled at the start of this tri-series and this match marked the first golden try scored in the history of the tournament.
A tightly contested match in which Finley Lloyd-Gilmour and Marcus Kershaw had tries for Pacific in response to early tries from Jayden Keelan and Nathaniel Barry for Foudre Bleue, with the score 13-all at full-time.
Academy player Josua Cevachev scored the decisive goal to break the deadlock, sending Foudre Bleue into the first men’s final and showing just how valuable the tournament could be for academy talent.
Sol Feroz 7-19 Atlantic Novas – Cardiff Women’s Final
The Grand Final in Cardiff proved to be one of the most fascinating matches in three weeks, but the talk was about the candidate for form of the day: Nia Toliver.
The USA the star proved lethal on the wing in the previous two games and, with good support from Faith Nathan, Alev Kelter and Ellie Boatman, scored a try in the final to see Atlantic draw first blood.
Atlantic Novas 10-11 Klan Taran – Biarritz Men, 1st round
The men’s first-round clashes were some of the toughest in the competition, with Cardiff seeing all games decided by seven points or less and Biarritz seeing more open but no less tight games.
However, of all the toughest fixtures, this match between Cardiff City winners Clan Taran and Atlantic Novas could not have been much closer, the one point conversion proving the difference for the first team.
Of particular note were Blitzboks Zain Davids and Selyyn Davids, the latter dominating in Cardiff, while the former scored a brace in this match, pairing up with Team GB stars Will Homer and Tom Emery.
Clan Taran 19-25 Pacific Current – Women’s Biarritz Final
If there are any messages from Biarritz, it is the arrival of Pacific Current and Maddison Levi.
After going down in the semi-finals in Cardiff, Levi and fellow Australian Kahli Henwood, combined with Fijian stars Ilisapeci Delaiwau and Reapi Ulunisau roared back to life in Biarritz, with Levi scoring a hat-trick in the final.
Taran provided strong competition through fallen Australians Heidi Dennis and Mackenzie Davis, alongside Adia Pya and Mariana Talatoka, but in the end the Pacific class proved too strong.
Albion Athletic 13-14 Sol Feroz – London Men’s Semi Final
This game and the following final are strong contenders, with Sol Feroz having to beat both champions Biarritz and champions Cardiff in straight games to win the inaugural Men’s Ultimate Sevens title.
However, the semi-final comes first, for the simple reason that Sol Feroz, despite facing an Albion side including SVNS Player of the Year Tristan Leydes, Australian stars Ben Dowling and Harry Wilson, and French star Steven Parez, went through.
A try from Nathan Lawson and then a second at the death of Gaspardo Lalli saw Spanish star of the week Juan Ramos need a four-point conversion to win. Delivering a clutch score from the sidelines, his effort marked one of the standout moments of the entire series.
Pacific Current 12-6 Atlantic Nice – London, Women’s Final
Despite great competition between many sides in the women’s competition, it was oddly inevitable that the grand final would be contested between the winners of Biarritz and Cardiff.
It was a match that lived up to the hype, with Ellie Boatman keeping Novas in touch until the last minute of the game.
However, strong Australian-Fiji The combination proved lethal, with Maddison Levi and Kahli Henwood putting in superb performances and Brazil’s Gabriela Lima scoring what would have been a title-clinching try at the death to clinch it for Pacific Current.
